Wet (video game)
Encyclopedia
Wet is a 2009 third-person shooter
action video game
, developed by Artificial Mind and Movement and published by Bethesda Softworks
for the PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360
video game consoles. The game puts heavy emphasis on killing a large number of opponents while engaging in stylish acrobatic moves. In its story and setting, Wet has a Tarantinoesque
feel with a style reminiscent of 1970s films
, and follows heroine Rubi Malone (voiced by actress Eliza Dushku
), a "problem-solver". Wet' s title derives from the euphemism 'wet work' – a messy job or task that involves one's hands becoming wet with blood.
In some sections of the game, Rubi's face will get covered in blood and she will go into a murderous, berserker-like rage. These sections are presented in noir style
, with bold red, black and white visuals. Rubi's attacks become faster and stronger to fight against large numbers of enemies during these sections, and killing chains of enemies extends her psychotic fury. There are also motorway sections that feature shooting integrated with quick time event
s.
At the end of each stage of play, the player will be graded on three different factors: Completion Time, Acrobatics, and Average Multiplier. Based on performance in these areas, Style Points will be given, allowing the purchase of upgrades to both Rubi and her weapons. Different upgrades include additional health blocks for Rubi, as well as increased firing rate and damage for the pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, and crossbows.
and general mercenary
. In the game's prologue, she is hired to retrieve a briefcase that is hijacked by a gang. She does so, leaving numerous dead gang members in her wake, and delivers the case to a hospital. It turns out to contain a human heart, which a powerful man named William Ackers needs to survive. Rubi delivers the case to Ackers's grateful son, collects her fee, and departs.
One year later, Mr. Ackers approaches Rubi in her Texas
hideout and hires her to go to Hong Kong
to bring back his son, whom Mr. Ackers says has fallen in with a bad crowd. Rubi flies to Hong Kong and consults with a local friend, Ming, who tells her that Ackers is heading up a powerful drug ring. Rubi, with difficulty, kidnaps the younger Ackers and delivers him to his father in London
.
However, the "William Ackers" who hired Rubi turns out to be an imposter and a rival of the real Ackers. His bodyguards decapitate Ackers's son, then stab Rubi and leave her for dead. Rubi recovers with the help of a friend, Milo, and vengefully starts to track down the fake Ackers and his gang.
On a tip from Milo, Rubi does a favor for a shady woman named Kafka, performing a theft of a rare book being shipped to the British Museum
. Kafka puts her on the trail of "Ackers," who is really a drug lord named Rupert Pelham. The trail leads Rubi back to Hong Kong and then to London again, where she is captured by Pelham's suboordinate, Sorrell, and tortured for information. Rubi manages to overpower her captors and escape, and kills Sorrell, but not before he confesses that Pelham is moving in on the real Ackers that night.
Rubi confronts Pelham at Ackers's mansion, just as William Ackers is about to be killed. Rubi duels and kills Pelham's chief bodyguard, Tarantula, by snapping her neck, then decapitates Pelham. Ackers says that Rubi delivered his son to his death, albeit unknowingly. He cannot bring himself to forgive her, but her actions that night are enough for him to refrain from taking vengeance on her. Rubi accepts this and leaves, pocketing a small stack of cash that Pelham threw at her to try to save himself.
Before the credits roll, there is a close-up of Tarantula, whose hand twitches.
announced that Wet had been dropped along with many other games, thus putting its future into hiatus - though according to Artificial Mind and Movement, the project would not be cancelled completely because Wet had come so far along in development. At the Montreal International Game Summit in November 2008, Artistic Technical Director David Lightbown announced that Wet would be released in 2009.
On April 24, 2009, Famitsu and Amazon indicated that Bethesda Softworks
would be publishing Wet. On April 27, 2009, Bethesda Softworks confirmed that they would publish Wet. The game was released September 15, 2009.
A demo of the game was released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace on 22 August 2009.
plus a rockabilly grindcore list of groups that contributed on the soundtrack. The entire score was recorded live in four days in Los Angeles with a musical cast that included Carla Azar
from Autolux
, Motown drummer James Gadson
, Shawn Davis on bass, Justin Stanley
on guitar, Davey Chegwidden on percussion and Elizabeth and Chris Lea on trombone and saxophone. Brian is quoted as saying, "I wanted music that would scare the shit out of you, make you feel like you’re in the game. It had to put you on edge and freak your brain out. Face-melting, musical debauchery."
' design ethic failed to conceal the game's dated visuals, but both also said that the game - and the character of Rubi - possessed sufficient charm to make it worth playing. PixlBit said that it "has its issues, but its Tarantino-esque style makes it a raucous romp." IT Reviews noted that "it isn't a particularly original game, with bits and pieces borrowed from everywhere," but also said "it's well executed riotous blasting all the way, and it left us with an undeniable grin on our faces the majority of the time." Edge magazine was more scathing, commenting: "Some cool things happen to crazy people in A2M's Wet, but unfortunately there are times in between where you're actually expected to play it."
X-Play gave Wet a 2 out of 5. Writing for "The Pros": "Tons of violent action", "Excellent production values and use of the grindhouse theme", and "Acrobatic gunplay can be fun". For "The Cons": "Lackluster graphics" "Non-standard levels are mediocre"
"Physics and gameplay in need of refinement", "Nothing new or better than what we've seen before"
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
action video game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
, developed by Artificial Mind and Movement and published by Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, LLC, is an American video game company. A subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, the company was originally based in Bethesda, Maryland and eventually moved to their current location in Rockville, Maryland...
for the PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
video game consoles. The game puts heavy emphasis on killing a large number of opponents while engaging in stylish acrobatic moves. In its story and setting, Wet has a Tarantinoesque
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
feel with a style reminiscent of 1970s films
1970s in film
The decade of the 1970s in film involved many significant films.----Contents1 World cinema2 Hollywood3 List of films: # A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.4 Events-World cinema:...
, and follows heroine Rubi Malone (voiced by actress Eliza Dushku
Eliza Dushku
Eliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...
), a "problem-solver". Wet
Gameplay
Wet is an action game that combines shooting and swordplay with acrobatics and gore. The main character, Rubi, carries twin pistols and a sword (she can also carry dual shotguns, submachine guns, or crossbows), and can fire while jumping, sliding on her knees, seducing goons, and running on walls. During these acrobatic actions, the game enters slow motion, and she will automatically aim at a second enemy, allowing the player to shoot at two enemies at once. She can also combine her attacks, such as wall running off a person or performing a sword uppercut while sliding. Racking up kills and collecting multiplier icons gains multipliers, which increase score and the rate at which Rubi regenerates health. Rubi can also regain health by finding bottles of whiskey.In some sections of the game, Rubi's face will get covered in blood and she will go into a murderous, berserker-like rage. These sections are presented in noir style
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, with bold red, black and white visuals. Rubi's attacks become faster and stronger to fight against large numbers of enemies during these sections, and killing chains of enemies extends her psychotic fury. There are also motorway sections that feature shooting integrated with quick time event
Quick Time Event
In video games, a Quick Time Event is a method of context-sensitive gameplay in which the player performs actions on the control device shortly after the appearance of an on-screen prompt. It allows for limited control of the game character during cut scenes or cinematic sequences in the game...
s.
At the end of each stage of play, the player will be graded on three different factors: Completion Time, Acrobatics, and Average Multiplier. Based on performance in these areas, Style Points will be given, allowing the purchase of upgrades to both Rubi and her weapons. Different upgrades include additional health blocks for Rubi, as well as increased firing rate and damage for the pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, and crossbows.
Plot
Rubi Malone is a "problem-solver": a bounty hunterBounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
and general mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
. In the game's prologue, she is hired to retrieve a briefcase that is hijacked by a gang. She does so, leaving numerous dead gang members in her wake, and delivers the case to a hospital. It turns out to contain a human heart, which a powerful man named William Ackers needs to survive. Rubi delivers the case to Ackers's grateful son, collects her fee, and departs.
One year later, Mr. Ackers approaches Rubi in her Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
hideout and hires her to go to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
to bring back his son, whom Mr. Ackers says has fallen in with a bad crowd. Rubi flies to Hong Kong and consults with a local friend, Ming, who tells her that Ackers is heading up a powerful drug ring. Rubi, with difficulty, kidnaps the younger Ackers and delivers him to his father in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
However, the "William Ackers" who hired Rubi turns out to be an imposter and a rival of the real Ackers. His bodyguards decapitate Ackers's son, then stab Rubi and leave her for dead. Rubi recovers with the help of a friend, Milo, and vengefully starts to track down the fake Ackers and his gang.
On a tip from Milo, Rubi does a favor for a shady woman named Kafka, performing a theft of a rare book being shipped to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. Kafka puts her on the trail of "Ackers," who is really a drug lord named Rupert Pelham. The trail leads Rubi back to Hong Kong and then to London again, where she is captured by Pelham's suboordinate, Sorrell, and tortured for information. Rubi manages to overpower her captors and escape, and kills Sorrell, but not before he confesses that Pelham is moving in on the real Ackers that night.
Rubi confronts Pelham at Ackers's mansion, just as William Ackers is about to be killed. Rubi duels and kills Pelham's chief bodyguard, Tarantula, by snapping her neck, then decapitates Pelham. Ackers says that Rubi delivered his son to his death, albeit unknowingly. He cannot bring himself to forgive her, but her actions that night are enough for him to refrain from taking vengeance on her. Rubi accepts this and leaves, pocketing a small stack of cash that Pelham threw at her to try to save himself.
Before the credits roll, there is a close-up of Tarantula, whose hand twitches.
Development
On July 29, 2008, Activision BlizzardActivision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard, Inc., formerly Activision, Inc. is the American holding company for Activision and Blizzard Entertainment. The company is majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA and was created through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, announced on December 2, 2007, in a...
announced that Wet had been dropped along with many other games, thus putting its future into hiatus - though according to Artificial Mind and Movement, the project would not be cancelled completely because Wet had come so far along in development. At the Montreal International Game Summit in November 2008, Artistic Technical Director David Lightbown announced that Wet would be released in 2009.
On April 24, 2009, Famitsu and Amazon indicated that Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, LLC, is an American video game company. A subsidiary of ZeniMax Media, the company was originally based in Bethesda, Maryland and eventually moved to their current location in Rockville, Maryland...
would be publishing Wet. On April 27, 2009, Bethesda Softworks confirmed that they would publish Wet. The game was released September 15, 2009.
A demo of the game was released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace on 22 August 2009.
Music
Original music for the game was composed by Brian LeBartonBrian LeBarton
Brian Manuel LeBarton is a keyboardist, composer, and electronic musician from Los Angeles, California.-Work with Beck:Brian LeBarton is the keyboardist and musical director for Beck...
plus a rockabilly grindcore list of groups that contributed on the soundtrack. The entire score was recorded live in four days in Los Angeles with a musical cast that included Carla Azar
Carla Azar
Carla Azar is a musician and a member of the band Autolux. Azar is a multi-instrumentalist but is known primarily for playing the drums. She also plays glockenspiel, xylophone, mellotron, piano, and bass guitar.-Career:...
from Autolux
Autolux
Autolux is an avant-garde rock group consisting of Eugene Goreshter , Greg Edwards and Carla Azar...
, Motown drummer James Gadson
James Gadson
James Gadson is an American drummer and session musician. Beginning his career in the late 1960s, Gadson has since become one of the most-recorded drummers in the history of R&B music....
, Shawn Davis on bass, Justin Stanley
Justin Stanley
Justin Stanley is an Australian born, initially Sydney based musician/producer who has worked with The Vines, Beck, Holidays On Ice, Daniel Merriweather and others. He is the lead guitarist of Wounded Cougar...
on guitar, Davey Chegwidden on percussion and Elizabeth and Chris Lea on trombone and saxophone. Brian is quoted as saying, "I wanted music that would scare the shit out of you, make you feel like you’re in the game. It had to put you on edge and freak your brain out. Face-melting, musical debauchery."
Cast
- Eliza DushkuEliza DushkuEliza Patricia Dushku is an American actress known for her television roles, including recurring appearances as Faith on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel. She starred in two Fox series, Tru Calling and Dollhouse...
as Rubi Malone - Malcolm McDowellMalcolm McDowellMalcolm McDowell is an English actor with a career spanning over forty years.McDowell is principally known for his roles in the controversial films If...., O Lucky Man!, A Clockwork Orange and Caligula...
as Rupert Pelham - Kim Mai GuestKim Mai GuestKim Mai Angela Guest is a voice actress of European and Vietnamese descent. She is known to speak fluent French and Italian.- Anime/Animation roles :* .hack//Liminality - Narumi* .hack//SIGN - Subaru...
as Tarantula - Parry ShenParry Shen-Early life:He was educated at Archbishop Molloy High School, then an all boys, Roman Catholic school in Briarwood, in Queens, New York, and at the University at Buffalo. When he moved to California he worked as a dorm parent at Villanova Preparatory School, a private college preparatory school in...
as Zhi - Ron YuanRon YuanRonald Winston "Ron" Yuan is an American actor, martial artist and stunt choreographer.Yuan was born in New York City, New York, the son of Theresa and Joseph Yuan, and the brother of actor Roger Yuan.-Filmography:...
as Ratboy/Dr. Afro - Alan CummingAlan CummingAlan Cumming, OBE is a Scottish stage, television and film actor, singer, writer, director, producer and author. His roles have included the Emcee in Cabaret, Boris Grishenko in GoldenEye, Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler in X2: X-Men United, Mr. Elton in Emma, and Fegan Floop in the Spy Kids trilogy...
as Sorrell/Ze Kollektor - James Sie as Ming
- William Morgan Sheppard as William Ackers
Reception
Wet has received mixed reviews. GameSpot praised the game's mechanics and soundtrack, but noted that the visuals are a bit rough and awkward. These sentiments were echoed by Eurogamer and OXM UK who both observed that the 'grindhouseGrindhouse
A grindhouse is an American term for a theater that mainly shows exploitation films. It is named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on 42nd Street in New York City, where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease were featured.- History :...
' design ethic failed to conceal the game's dated visuals, but both also said that the game - and the character of Rubi - possessed sufficient charm to make it worth playing. PixlBit said that it "has its issues, but its Tarantino-esque style makes it a raucous romp." IT Reviews noted that "it isn't a particularly original game, with bits and pieces borrowed from everywhere," but also said "it's well executed riotous blasting all the way, and it left us with an undeniable grin on our faces the majority of the time." Edge magazine was more scathing, commenting: "Some cool things happen to crazy people in A2M's Wet, but unfortunately there are times in between where you're actually expected to play it."
X-Play gave Wet a 2 out of 5. Writing for "The Pros": "Tons of violent action", "Excellent production values and use of the grindhouse theme", and "Acrobatic gunplay can be fun". For "The Cons": "Lackluster graphics" "Non-standard levels are mediocre"
"Physics and gameplay in need of refinement", "Nothing new or better than what we've seen before"